TOWN Hall workers have called off their planned strike on Wednesday - while the council assesses how much the proposed pay deal will cost and where the cash to pay for it will be found.

When council workers last went on strike on 17 July - as part of national campaign by their union UNISON - it caused chaos in the town. Seven schools were forced to close, thousands of residents had to wait another seven days before their rubbish was collected and libraries, leisure centres and the town hall were plunged in darkness as pickets lines were set up outside major civic buildings.

Much the same, with the exception of the school closures, was expected to occur again on Wednesday, but now the three town hall unions, including UNISON, have agreed to defer any industrial action pending the outcome of a proposed pay deal. They had originally called for a six per cent rise, but were offered three per cent.

Since then, urgent talks between the parties on a national level has resulted in a proposed two-year deal which includes a £5 an hour or 4.1 per cent rise from April 2002 for the lowest paid workers, who make up 6.4 per cent of council workers in Rochdale; A two per cent rise on the bottom two points of the pay scale from October 2002, which would cover 11 per cent of the workers; 4.5 per cent for workers on the bottom two scales from April 2003 and 3.5 per cent for everyone else; and the setting up of a commission to look at local government pay and related issues.

Roger Ellis, Rochdale Council's Chief Executive, said: "Our finance staff are busy working out how much this proposed deal would cost but it is obviously more than the three per cent allowed for when the council's budget was set in March. That means we will have to look very carefully about how we could balance the books this year and next if the proposed settlement is agreed.

"As we have always said, because the council does not have an unlimited supply of money, the consequences of higher pay without efficiency savings can only mean cuts in spending or higher charges.''